On July 1, 1916 58,000 British soldiers died on the first day of General Haigs Somme Offensive. I think Harry Patch (a British WW1 veteran) was involved in this battle or was it Henry Allingham? I keep getting them mixed up.

In total 620,000 British soldiers died and 450,000 German soldiers died.

I still can't believe they were told to walk just because of the 6 day atillery barrage. Right in front of a Maschinengewehr 08 crew (MG08) and a line of German riflemen.

It was indeed horrific....and in the end, the Battle of the Somme was not needed, because it's objective wasn't properly achieved. And so many died for it, by the end, 1.5 Million Allied and German soldiers had been killed, and the Alllied objective of forcing the Germans to pull men out of Verdun to support the Somme was unsuccessful. I'm not even sure if the Allies took as much ground as they'd planned. That's the most unfortunate part, that so much slaughter could've been avoided, if the General's only thought harder on their strategy....

We will not forget The Somme.

you very much If a tree would fall in the woods.....would the other trees laugh at it?

Today July 18, 2009 Henry Allingham (the World's oldest man at 113 years old!) has died.
He fought in the Battle Of Jutland the largest naval battle of the War To End All Wars.
Rest in peace old man....